SHILLONG, Feb 1: The High Court of Meghalaya on Wednesday directed the state government to immediately report if there is any illegal mining in or around the South Garo Hills district in any manner or form or whether any machinery or the like exists or is in place for it to be suspected that recent illegal coal mining activity has been conducted at any place.
Hearing a PIL filed by one Sri Krishan, the division bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Wanlura Diengdoh directed the state to conduct a thorough search in such regard on a scientific basis and indicate the preliminary position to the court on February 7.
The court further stated that Coal India Limited (CIL) should be represented on the next adjourned date and both the CIL and the state government should indicate the procedure adopted for the transportation of the previously mined coal, particularly to ensure that challans issued in such regard are not misused for the purpose of transporting the recently illegally mined coal in the state.
The court, while expressing serious doubts as to the motive of the 22-year-old petitioner, said that the allegations are serious.
It further stated that petitioner claims that the transporters of illegally mined coal in the state are involved in the purchase of the previously mined coal under orders of court and using the coal purchased at the auction as a front to carry on their illegal business of mining and transporting coal from the state.
“The petitioner makes out a case that almost the entirety of the illegally mined coal is being exported to Bangladesh. It may do well to recall two essential facts. It is the consistent and avowed stand of the State of Meghalaya that at the moment there is no mining of coal in the state. It is the further stand of the state that applications for scientific mining of coal have been forwarded to the appropriate ministry of the Union and complete permission is yet to be received for commencement of scientific mining of coal in the state,” the order said.
The court further stated that the illegal mining of coal was first noticed by the National Green Tribunal and pursuant to the orders passed by the NGT from or about the year 2016, which were later mostly upheld and ratified by the Supreme Court, there is a complete ban of mining of coal in Meghalaya other than by scientific method upon obtaining due license in such regard.
It further stated that no license for scientific mining of coal has yet been issued though some preliminary permission has recently been granted.
“Commencement of scientific mining of coal has not taken place. Pursuant to the orders of the NGT and the Supreme Court, the previously illegally mined coal was to be auctioned off. But no meaningful steps were taken by the state in such regard for a considerable period which aided in illegal mining resurfacing on a large scale and the recently mined coal being passed off as previously mined coal,” the court stated.
According to the court, there can be no doubt that, in the backdrop of the suspicion of continued illegal mining of coal in the state, appropriate measures have been put in place by Justice BP Katakey to ensure that the coal purchasers at the auction do not mix up with the present illegally mined coal to facilitate the transportation of the recently mined coal, if any.
The case will be taken up for hearing on February 7.
